Contents

Life

Early life

Thomas Alexander Pleska was born in Dayton, Ohio, on August 20, 1942, to Alexander and Johanna Pleska, of ethnic Byelorussian and Ukrainian descent, and was baptised in St Theodosius Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio. When he was growing up in Dayton, there was no Orthodox parish, and he received his spiritual formation in local Protestant churches, being taken to the Russian Orthodox church in Cleveland for major feasts. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Michigan School of Music, then transfrred to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and where he completed a BA, majoring in Philosophy. After graduating, he joined a stock brokerage and, subsequently, moved to real estate. It was in his adult life that he became a member of Christ the Savior Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.